This week, in our 15 projects series, we highlight our Monument Park expansion in Oxfordshire. It may not be the most obvious choice of project to highlight. It is, after all, an office building shaped by the commercial realities of cost and return on investment. However, that was also what made it interesting, finding a way to turn what could easily have been a fairly uninspiring box into a building that felt considered and architectural, without making it unnecessarily complicated or expensive.

We carried the project from the early master planning through to completion. During the masterplan stage, we explored three-dimensional massing, to consider how the wider expansion could come together. During the development of the concept, importance was placed on which relatively small design decisions could achieve the greatest impact. The answer came from keeping the architecture simple. We framed the main entrances with coloured ‘goalposts’ to make them immediately recognisable, then wrapped the two principal elevations with a canopy that drops to the ground at either end. Together with the carefully considered proportions of the façades, these moves reduced the apparent mass of the building and gave it a much stronger identity and presence across the wider development.

The canopy design feature faced various consternation throughout the design process. We were, however, confident that it would be a striking and complimentary addition once the building was complete, and subsequently everyone agreed that it was a very simple move that made a significant difference.

It is a little difficult to get overly excited about what is, ultimately, an office building, but as with all projects there is a real sense of pride in seeing it complete. In the finished building, the proportions, scale, and overall presence work as we intended.

Our Associate, Gareth, says “this project reinforced something I still try to apply to every design. Always take a step back and ask whether it is really working. If a design becomes complicated or feels difficult, it is usually heading in the wrong direction. Good design should flow, remain simple and make sense at the highest level and Monument Park is a good example of that.”

We couldn’t agree more Gareth.